The Painted Darkness by Brian Keene, Brian James Freeman Page A
Authors: Brian Keene, Brian James Freeman
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PUBLISHING
O
kay, we’ll be the first to admit we only
went around the table once, asking these bestselling authors a single question:
“What does the future hold for eBooks and the publishing business?”
But calling it a Roundtable Discussion sounded much cooler than calling it “one question with a bunch of great authors” so here we are. And without further ado, here are their responses to that question, organized in alphabetical order:
Scott Adams*:
When you’re an author, people like to tell you when they have read your books. The number of times that happens, including email, for a particular book, generally tracks with the sales volume of the book, at least for the books for which I have sales numbers. In other words, the Dilbert book with the highest sales was The Dilbert Principle, and more people have commented to me about that book than any other Dilbert book. And so on down the line. The interesting thing is that I get more comments on God’s Debris, both in person and by email, than I get for all of the Dilbert books ever written. That’s what makes me suspect that God’s Debris could be the most widely read ebook of all time, not counting books authored by The Lord Almighty.
William Peter Blatty:
Nothing short of a Fahrenheit 451 could ever drive me to give up the tactile and auditory pleasures of turning a page. It’s just—well, cozy, and always in the background are recollections of reading by a crackling fire on a rainy day.
Ray Bradbury:
They don’t smell good. Books have two smells—a new book smell is very good, but an old book smell is even better. It smells like ancient Egyptian dust. That’s why I think the book is important.
Douglas Clegg:
The publishing business will figure out how to implant chips in the optic nerve so we can read books downloaded (by injection) directly into the eye. These optic chips will retail for $200 and each blink will turn the page.
This will lead to a new branch of the medical profession—bibliophthalmology, the science of a condition called “Book Eye.”
Eventually, when the future energy crisis hits, we’ll realize that print actually is a greener resource than the eBook. But that’s for the next generation to discover.
Lori Foster:
Ebooks are the wave of the future! Students will substitute downloaded books for weighty paper volumes, as will editors and agents who are often required to take their work home with them. The convenience of being able to set out on a vacation with ten books—all loaded into a single device VS an extra suitcase to hold your reading material—is as valuable as the “green” perspective of saving trees from the printing presses. The popularity of ebooks will continue to grow as newer generations adapt more easily to reading from a device, even as some of us continue to savor the “reading experience” of turning the pages in a bound book.
Seth Godin:
eBooks ARE the publishing business. Publishing is not about chopping down trees, it’s about selection, curation, investment and promotion.
Hand someone at Knopf a book and you can honestly say, “hey, you’re good at making this, perhaps the best in the world.”
Can you say the same thing about something that appears on a Kindle or an iPad? Not sure you can.
The future of this industry belongs to organizations that coordinate tribes of similarly minded people, connected electronically.
Jane Green:
As an author, I see ebooks as being a good thing, hopefully bringing in new readers who might not otherwise look at my work. Additionally, with the advent of social networking and the increasing attachment we have to all things electronic, it allows people to quickly and easily download my books, with a speed and ease that would not be afforded had a visit to the bookstore been necessary.
As a reader, I have to also add that nothing will replace books for me. I use my kindle for travel, and as a welcome addition, but if it’s a book I love, or want to
O
kay, we’ll be the first to admit we only
went around the table once, asking these bestselling authors a single question:
“What does the future hold for eBooks and the publishing business?”
But calling it a Roundtable Discussion sounded much cooler than calling it “one question with a bunch of great authors” so here we are. And without further ado, here are their responses to that question, organized in alphabetical order:
Scott Adams*:
When you’re an author, people like to tell you when they have read your books. The number of times that happens, including email, for a particular book, generally tracks with the sales volume of the book, at least for the books for which I have sales numbers. In other words, the Dilbert book with the highest sales was The Dilbert Principle, and more people have commented to me about that book than any other Dilbert book. And so on down the line. The interesting thing is that I get more comments on God’s Debris, both in person and by email, than I get for all of the Dilbert books ever written. That’s what makes me suspect that God’s Debris could be the most widely read ebook of all time, not counting books authored by The Lord Almighty.
William Peter Blatty:
Nothing short of a Fahrenheit 451 could ever drive me to give up the tactile and auditory pleasures of turning a page. It’s just—well, cozy, and always in the background are recollections of reading by a crackling fire on a rainy day.
Ray Bradbury:
They don’t smell good. Books have two smells—a new book smell is very good, but an old book smell is even better. It smells like ancient Egyptian dust. That’s why I think the book is important.
Douglas Clegg:
The publishing business will figure out how to implant chips in the optic nerve so we can read books downloaded (by injection) directly into the eye. These optic chips will retail for $200 and each blink will turn the page.
This will lead to a new branch of the medical profession—bibliophthalmology, the science of a condition called “Book Eye.”
Eventually, when the future energy crisis hits, we’ll realize that print actually is a greener resource than the eBook. But that’s for the next generation to discover.
Lori Foster:
Ebooks are the wave of the future! Students will substitute downloaded books for weighty paper volumes, as will editors and agents who are often required to take their work home with them. The convenience of being able to set out on a vacation with ten books—all loaded into a single device VS an extra suitcase to hold your reading material—is as valuable as the “green” perspective of saving trees from the printing presses. The popularity of ebooks will continue to grow as newer generations adapt more easily to reading from a device, even as some of us continue to savor the “reading experience” of turning the pages in a bound book.
Seth Godin:
eBooks ARE the publishing business. Publishing is not about chopping down trees, it’s about selection, curation, investment and promotion.
Hand someone at Knopf a book and you can honestly say, “hey, you’re good at making this, perhaps the best in the world.”
Can you say the same thing about something that appears on a Kindle or an iPad? Not sure you can.
The future of this industry belongs to organizations that coordinate tribes of similarly minded people, connected electronically.
Jane Green:
As an author, I see ebooks as being a good thing, hopefully bringing in new readers who might not otherwise look at my work. Additionally, with the advent of social networking and the increasing attachment we have to all things electronic, it allows people to quickly and easily download my books, with a speed and ease that would not be afforded had a visit to the bookstore been necessary.
As a reader, I have to also add that nothing will replace books for me. I use my kindle for travel, and as a welcome addition, but if it’s a book I love, or want to
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